Fleeting Thoughts: TNA's Vacant World Title and the Future of Nexus

Five days removed from SummerSlam, and not 24 hours removed from the vacating of the TNA World Heavyweight Championship, it seems WWE and TNA have their big story lines going forward into the fall.

What does the future hold for The Nexus, now five members deep after Skip Sheffield reportedly broke his ankle at a house show in Honolulu?

How will the TNA World Championship tournament play out, with the semifinal matchups now set for No Surrender?

- The end of The Whole F'n Show really caught me off guard. Even though it was obviously fake, the amount of blood covering the prone body of Rob Van Dam was something I just didn't expect.

I liked the way TNA pulled the belt off Van Dam. I'm a longtime Van Dam mark, but seeing him lose the strap without actually being pinned was almost an homage to the way he lost the ECW TV Title.

It was a lot better than squashing him after a traffic citation, as WWE did during Van Dam's only WWE championship run.

- I love tournaments for vacant titles. It's even cooler when the tournament is being contested for the world title.

But with such a great concept comes more disappointment from TNA. Rob Terry, Jay Lethal, and Douglas Williams—three of TNA's homegrown superstars—lost in the first round of the tournament. The three men to defeat them? Jeff Hardy, Mr. Anderson, and Kurt Angle—three men who gained their fame as WWE superstars.

The lone hope is The Pope, but unfortunately, I can't see him getting past Mr. Kennedy...er, Anderson.

Another big question is this: Is TNA pulling the plug on Angle's run through the top 10? The gimmick was unique (something TNA doesn't accomplish very often) and would have been a good run even though we all knew it would end with a Kurt Angle title run.

It seems Angle is the favorite to win the title in October, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. But I would have hoped the "top 10 challenge" wouldn't have been cut short.

- The future of Nexus can't be all that bright. WWE had a golden opportunity to give Nexus the rub at SummerSlam and instead chose to put John Cena over...again.

Countless Internet reports have Vince McMahon and WWE creative completely invested in establishing the stars of tomorrow, but I can't wholeheartedly believe that after SummerSlam. While Sheamus is new to the main event spotlight, he turns 33 in January.

That leaves Randy Orton and The Miz, both men under the age of 30, to lead the WWE into the future.

If at least a fraction of The Nexus was meant to be the future of WWE programming, why wouldn't WWE creative give them the rub at the biggest WWE pay-per-view outside of WrestleMania? It makes no sense to put Cena over for the millionth time instead of establishing credibility for the likes of Wade Barrett, Justin Gabriel, and Heath Slater.

Even on SmackDown, it appears WWE writers have at least temporarily given up on the youth movement, as the 45-year-old Undertaker feuds with 43-year-old Kane over the World Heavyweight Championship.

In fact, the last youngster to be inserted in a world title feud was Jack Swagger, and now he's jobbing to MVP.

Not all of The Nexus was meant for the world title picture, but the ones that are slated to be players in the future of WWE need to stop being held back.

The same can be said for Kofi Kingston, Evan Bourne, and John Morrison.